Israeli air strike kills 6 in Gaza / Targeted car said to be full of militants

Laura King, Los Angeles Times

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, April 8, 2006

Photo: KHALIL HAMRA

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Photo: KHALIL HAMRA

Israeli air strike kills 6 in Gaza / Targeted car said to be full of militants

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2006-04-08 04:00:00 PDT Jerusalem -- An Israeli aerial strike in the southern Gaza Strip incinerated a car the army said was carrying Palestinian militants Friday. Palestinian medics said six people were killed, including at least one child who was in or near the vehicle.

More than a dozen people were wounded in the attack outside the town of Khan Younis, according to hospital officials.

Israeli forces have been mounting intensifying strikes in recent days, including naval barrages, artillery shelling, tank fire and airborne attacks, against Palestinian militants in Gaza. Most of the fire has been concentrated on a narrow band of northern Gaza used by militants to fire rockets toward Israel, but several sites in densely populated Gaza City have been targeted as well.

Palestinian sources said the dead in Friday's strike included a senior commander from the Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella organization that has drawn support from various militant groups in Gaza and has frequently claimed responsibility for attacks on Israelis using homemade rockets.

The Israeli military confirmed an aerial strike had been launched late Friday against a vehicle carrying "a number of terrorists." An army spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the car was leaving what was described as a militant base where weapons training was being conducted.

The attack came amid growing tensions over the policies of the new Hamas-dominated Palestinian government, sworn in just over a week ago after winning parliamentary elections in January.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, elected separately last year and considered a pragmatist, was in Gaza on Friday for talks with Ismail Haniyeh, the new prime minister. The two have clashed over a variety of issues, including Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist.

Hamas, which carried out a concerted campaign of suicide bombings against Israel during the past five years but halted such attacks when it entered politics last year, faces near-bankruptcy as a result of a dramatic drop in international aid to the Palestinian Authority.

Two major donors, the United States and the European Union, announced a halt of hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Hamas-led government Friday but said they would seek to funnel some of that assistance through humanitarian projects.

Haniyeh said at an inaugural meeting of his Cabinet on Wednesday that the Palestinian Authority has been unable to meet its monthly payroll, leaving more than 140,000 civil servants without paychecks that should have been issued nearly a week ago.

Up to one-third of the Palestinian population is sustained by the government payroll. International aid groups and Palestinian officials have said that with many Palestinians already living below the poverty line, severe financial hardship will set in quickly unless money can be found to pay government salaries.

Since taking power, Hamas has been seeking to soften its stance toward Israel without alienating its core constituency. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Friday that the group is prepared to accept in principle a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a move that would implicitly recognize Israel.

In an interview with the Washington Post on Thursday, Abbas predicted that Hamas leaders will accept the Jewish state's right to exist. "If they do not change, nobody will deal with them," he said. "They had some illusions that they can deliver, they can survive, let the world go to hell. But I don't think it's doable now. They have started realizing that this is not doable."

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